I woke up 20 minutes ago or so and felt this late summer heat that presses down like a soft hand. I got up and walked the house, past the sleeping kids with fans turned full-blast upon their beds, and went looking in the fridge for something to drink. Finally, I sucked down a couple glasses of tap water. Then I went outside into the yellow-brown darkness of this hot night, threw a mat down upon the deck, and tried to sleep while the cicadas sank their rhythmic September song.

I woke up, and it was raining. It was just enough, a sprinkle, to again chase me from my sleep, and in that rain - almost certainly - lies the beginning of the end of this big heat. Two short months from now, there could be snow upon the ground, and around Central New York we will wish for that time when the heat was in the 90s.

But right now, at half-past three a.m., I just want to get some sleep.